What is an Embryonic Stem Cell?
Stem cells have the unique ability to become another kind of cell. They can be coaxed into becoming a muscle or brain cell, a blood cell or organ cell. This gives rise to the question, can stem cells be used to cure disease and correct birth defects?
Stem cells are either mature or early stem cells. Early stem cells, or embryonic stem cells, are those extracted from a blastocyst, an embryo within four days of inception.
Development of a Stem Cell Line
These cells have the potential to become pluripotent; that is, they can be turned into function specific cells. The stem cells are extracted from the blastocyst. They are then placed in laboratory culture dishes along with a culture medium. These cells then divide. Over the course of several days, the cells cover the bottom of the culture dish.
These cells are then carefully removed and put into new dishes, a process called replating. This continues until scientists have developed a stem cell line. Those cells that have not become function-specific are potentially pluripotent cells. A stem cell line has the potential to produce several thousand pluripotent stem cells.
What Happens Next
Stem cell lines are then made available for research. One organization through which stem cell lines can be obtained is the NIH (National Institutes of Health) Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Registry. A strict criterion is in place to allow funding for and access to existing stem cell lines.
The research performed is myriad, ranging from regenerative properties of cells to curing diseases to gene repair. Methodologies are consistently being renewed and refined to ensure results are accurate and progressive.
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